Steady-State and Unsteady-State Flow of Non':'Newtonian

Fluids Through Porous Media

ABSTRACT
H. K. van POOLLEN
MEMBER AIME
J. R. JARGON
JUNIOR MEMBER AIME
Non-Newtonian fluids may be injected into a
reservoir during secondary recovery operations. The
non-Newtonian fluid used in this work is a power-law
type of fluid; that is, the viscosity of the fluid
decreases as the flow rate or rate of shear increases.
This paper presents equations for steady-state
-linear and radial flow of such fluids, transient
behavior results from a finite difference model of a
radial system, and transient behavior results from a
field test.
The equations that describe the flow of a non-
Newtonian fluid are non-linear and are solved
numerically. Finite difference solutions are pre-
sented as curves of dimensionless pressure drop at
the wellbore vs dimensionless time for a constant
injection rate. Solutions were obtained for 5-percent,
lO-percent and 100-percent PV of a non-Newtonian
fluid for injection rates of 1, 10, 100 and 1000 cel sec
and for a 5 percent PV of non-Newtonian fluid
located at r = r
w
' 3, 10, 20, 50 and 100 ft for a flow
rate of 1 ccl sec. The buildup curves do not exhibit
a straight-line portion as is the case for Newtonian
flow through porous media.
Correlations also are shown for the productivity
index vs rate for the computer model study and the
field tests.
INTRODUCTION
During various secondary recovery operations
non- Newtonian fluids are injected. Such fluids, in
general, include thickened water and gelled fluids.
The term "non-Newtonian" implies that the viscosity
is not onl y dependent upon temperature and pressure,
but also on the rate of shear that is applied to the
fluid. For example, water, which is a Newtonian
fluid, will have essentially the same viscosity no
Original manuscript received in Society of Petroleum Engineers
office Aug. 25, 1966. Revised manuscript received Jan. 10,
1969. Paper (SPE 1567) was presented at SPE 41st Annual Fall
Meeting held in Dallas, Tex., Oct. 2-5, 1966. @Copyright 1969
American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum
Engineers, Inc.
This paper will be printed in Transactions volume 246, which
will cover 1969.
80
MARATHON OIL CO.
LITTLETON, COLO.
matter what rate of shear is applied. A pseudo-
plastic fluid exhibits a decreasing viscosity when
higher rates of shear are applied; a dilated fluid
has an increasing viscosity with increasing rates
of shear.
The objective of studies performed and described
in this report is to obtain relationships and
mathematical and empirical descriptions of the flow
of non- Newtonian fluids through porous media. Simple
mathematical relationships, computer studies that
include the unsteady- state behavior of such fluids,
and field tests are used.
PREVIOUS LABORATORY STUDIES
Laboratory studies have been performed by several
investigators. The fluids used in one investigation
l
were surfactant-stabilized dispersions of water in
hydrocarbons. Its Fig. 6 is reproduced as our Fig. l.
This effective-viscosity vs frontal-velocity diagram
shows that this fluid is of the power-law type over
a fairly large range of frontal velocities. Gogartyl
developed an equation for the effective viscosity
as a function of shear rate that reduces to Eq. 2 for
frontal velocities greater than about 2 ft/D. The
fluid characteristics used in the present study are
similar to those reported by Gogarty.
Christopher and Middleman
2
performed experiments
with power-law fluids flowing through pipes packed
with glass beads. They used a modified Blake- Kozeny
lReferences given at end of paper.

;: 60f-------+-------\-- - - - - 42 5 m d

. 182 md
>
w
:
'-'
6_L-__ __ __ __
0.1 \0 10 100
FRONTAL VELOCITY (FT/DAY)
FIG. 1 - FLOW DATA FOR FLUID A (1).
SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL
equation to correlate their data on a friction factor
vs Reynolds number pIaL
McKinley et al.
3
present results of non-Newtonian
flow through consolidated porous media. They were
able to superimpose rheograms of capillary data
and core data by the proper choice of a constant in
the equation defining the shear stress for the
porous media.
STEADY-STATE FLOW
FOR NON- NEWTONIAN FL ums
STEADY-STATE LINEAR-FLOW
POWER-LAW FLUID
Darcy's law for flow through a linear core is
t.p = qllL,
Ak
(1)
in which 6.p is the pressure drop over the core, q is
the volumetric flow rate, fl is the viscosity, L is
the length of the core, A is the cross sectional area
of the core and k is the permeability.
For a power-law fluid, it is assumed that
( 2)
in whi ch q/ A x is the flow rate per unit cross- section,
x is a subscript referring to the distance and F is a
constant defined by Eq. 2.
Because the steady- state flow rate in a linear
system is independent of distance, the steady- state
flow may now be expressed by
t.p
or
F m+l
= - -q-- L
k Am+l
, .......... . ( 3)
1
t.p = log C + m log q/ A, . (4)
og (q/A)
where
FL
C = k'
Eq. 4 indicates that a log-lot plot of 6.p/(q/ A) vs
q/ A should gi ve a straight line with a slope equal
to m and an intercept of C = 6.p/(q/ A) at q/ A = 1.
STEADY-STATE RADIAL-FLOW
POWER-LAW FLUID
The flow of fluids through a segment between
radii rand r + dr is expressed by
qll dr
r
dp - t.p - ...
- r r + dr -
(5)
in which h is the formation thickness and flr is the
viscosity at r.
For a power-law fluid (Eq. 2) it was assumed that
MARCH, 1969
(6)
in which flr is the apparent viscosity at r due to
q/ A, and A, = 27Trh, the cross-sectional area at a
distance r.
The apparent viscosity may then be expressed as
and
dp =
Fqm+l
dr
m+l
r
(7)
(8)
Integration from the inner radius, r w' of a cylinder
to the outer radiuiS, r
e
, gives
=
=
If, further,
F
m+l
- q
r
w
-m -m
(r -r )
e w
(9)
r
e
Q 1/2
= ,
. . . . . . .. . . . (10)
in which Q is the volume of non- Newtonian material
in the cylinder and is the fractional porosity,
then
For - 1 < m < 0 and small values of rw/re the last
term in the brackets may be ignored.
It can be shown that this assumption is valid
(error is 5 percent or less) if
r /r 75 and m = -0.7
e w
r /r
e w
r /r
e w
Letting
400 and m = -0.5
3.2 X 10
6
and m = -0.2.
81
c =
, . . . . (12)
the pressure drop over a cylinder containing Q
volume of power-law fluid becomes
, .. . . . . . . . . . (13)
which may be written as
m
log = log C - 2 log Q + (m +1) log q
. (14)
or
m 2
log q = log C + 2 log 6 .... (15)
For semi steady state, the same general relationships
can be derived.
Eq. 14 indicates that, for constant values of Q, a
log-log plot of q vs b.p should give a straight line
with a slope equal to m+l. According to Eq. 15,
both log C and m can be obtained from a plot with
log j}"p/ q and log q2/Q as ordinates. In Eq. 12, F is
still a function of permeability (Gogartyl has
determined this functional relationship).
UNSTEADY-STATE FLOW FOR NON-NEWTONIAN
FLUIDS THROUGH POROUS MEDIA
The transient behavior of power-law type fluids
is of particular interest since the in-place viscosity
can generally be calculated from fall-off or buildup
tests. A simplified model was used to simulate the
field condi tion of a transient test on the computer.
This model assumes that the fluids are slightly
compressible and that the viscous slug did not mix,
but remained intact throughout the reservoir. Also,
it is assumed that the slug did not change position
in the reservoir during the time period of the transient
test.
The following equation describes the flow of a
slightly compressible fluid through porous media.
The viscosity is variable and k, and c are constant.
oP) = 0c op . . . . . . . (16)
r or or k ot
Using a logarithmic transformation and expanding in
finite difference form
4
gives
82
[1 (Pi-l,n+l -Pi,n+l)

__ 1 ___ (Pi,n+l ::i+l,n+l)]

= r
w
2 0c
e k
(Pi,n+l -Pi,n) . (17)
M
A system of i simultaneous equations with i unknowns
is formed when the above equation is applied to each
node and the boundary conditions are used.
The boundary and ini tial condi tions are:
1. Initial condition: At zero time the pressure of
the reservoir is zero.
p(r,o) = 0 . (18)
2. Boundary condition at the well bore: At time
greater than zero a constant rate of injection or
wi thdrawal is maintained at the well bore.
or
q _ k dp
P;--lldr'
q =
2'ITkh (Po,n+l -Pl,n+l)
V,1/2
. . (19)
3. Boundary condition at radius of drainage: The
pressure at the radius of drainage is held constant
and equal to the original reservoir pressure for all
time.
P ( r ,t) = o. . . . . . . . . . . . ( 20)
e
The viscosity of each cell in the model is assumed
to be a function of the average rate per cross-sectional
area through each celL Darcy's law is used to
calculate the rate into and out of each cell for every
time increment. The rate into cell i is
(
k \
V,i-l/2,n I
The rate out of cell i is
qout _ ( k )
-
Then
(Pi-l,n+l -Pi,n+l)
A
uur e
w
. . . . (21)
(Pi,n+l -Pi+1,n+l)
A
uur e
w
. . . . (22)
SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL
(*lavg = [ (q!n) + )]12
The viscosity in each cell is then calculated by
m
J.I
i
= Fi *)aVg ....... .
. (24)
The set of simul taneous equations is solved
implicitly using Gauss elimination.
s
The viscosities
are calculated explicitly using flow rates from the
previous time step.
The following reservoir parameters were used for
all of the computer runs:
kh
hc
30.48 darcy cm
8.96 x 10-
3
cm/atm
7.62 cm
10058.4 cm
1320
Fig. 2 shows the relationships between apparent
viscosity and flow rate that were used in the
computer model. Curve 1, which is described by the
following equations, was used for most of the
computer runs.
J.I = 34.0 for 3600 0.1
app
-0.211
J.I
app
= 21.0 (3600 t)
for 3600 0.1 .... (25)
\
The following relationship describes Curve 2:
J.I
app
= 15.0 for 3600 (t) < 1.0
-0.42
J.I
app
= 15.0 (3600 t)
for 3600 \ 1.0 ... (26)
Many runs were made in which only a portion of
MARCH, 1969
the reservoir contained a non-Newtonian fluid. For
these runs, the viscosity of the Newtonian fluid
was set equal to 1. O.
INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
Computer runs were made! for several sets of
conditions for non- Newtonian flow. The transient
pressure curves are as dimensionless
pressure drop vs dimensionless time. The dimen-
sionless pressure drop is defined as
flp = 2rrkflp/lJ (,}, . . . .
D n-
(27)
where fln is the viscosity of the Newtonian fluid
that occupies the remainder of the reservoir when
only a fraction of the pore volume consists of a
non-Newtonian fluid. The dimensionless time is
defined as
2
tD = kt/,slJ cr .
n w
(28)
All of the data for the following discussion were
obtained with viscosity Curve 1 shown .in Fig. 2.
Fig. 3 shows transient dimensionless pressure
curves for 5-percent, 10-percent and lOO-percent PV
of non-Newtonian fluid banks at the wellbore at flow
rates of 1, 10, 100 and 1000 cc/ sec.
None of these curves exhibits a straight-line
portion as they do for Newtonian flow through porous
media. However, by taking the slope of the curve in
the last cycle previous to pressure maintenance as
shown by the dashed line in Fig. 5, the average
apparent viscosity of the non-Newtonian fluid at
steady state is obtained at the particular flow rate.
Table 1 gives the values of the slope obtained from
the drawdown curve and the average viscosity of
the non- Newtonian fluid at steady state, as obtained
from the computer model. These numbers compare
favorably. The average apparent viscosity of the
non-Newtonian fluid is the sum of the viscosity
volume products divided by the total volume occupied
by the non- Newtonian fluid.
Fig. 4 shows log-log plots of the dimensionless
pressure drop and average apparent viscosity vs
OOr------------,-------------r------------,
11----------+'-
/cur'i'el
-""cur .... 2

i
toa/
")
FIG. 2 - HYPOTHETICAL CURVES FOR APPARENT
VISCOSITY AS A FUNCTION OF SUPERFICIAL
VELOCITY.
83
flow rate squared divided by cumulative injection
for the non- Newtonian fluid located at the well bore.
Both curves are straight lines and can be represented
by
TABLE 1 - COMPARISON OF AVERAGE VISCOSITY
OBTAINED FROM COMPUTER MODEL AND VISCOSITY
OBTAINED USING SLOPES FROM FIG. 3
2
jJapp
5.1 i - ~ -
= Q ) -0.1065
\Q
, .. . . (29)
2
(q
)
-0.1020
6Pn = 21.0 Q
. . . (30)
The exponent in both equations is very nearly equal
to m/2 as one would expect from Eqs. 15 and 25. A
slight amount of deviation is observed in the f'..p D
points due to the fact that the term containing the
wellbore radi us is negl ected in making the plot.
Deviation would also be expected from these
equations at smaller values of q2/Q because at the
lower flow rates the fluid is Newtonian near the
./
0
~ - - 0
----
~
====--
o ---------
~
~
-
or-
0
Calcul ated
Vi scosity
(cp)
q= 1.00
100-percent slug 33.1
lO-percent slug 27,9
5-percent sl ug 25.9
q= 10.00
100-percent slug 21.8
10-percent slug 17.6
5-percent sl ug 16.1
q= 100.0
100-percent slug 12.1
10-percent slug 10.8
5-percent slug 9.8
q = 1,000.0
100-percent slug 8.2
lO-percent slug 6.5
5-percent slug 5.7
/
/'
~ ~ ..
V
~
...
. ,,,,
r""'"
V-
,.'
~
.-.
~
\0
~
..., C .. , ....
~
~ 0.
1000
C .. , ...
i
I0.00O 100,000 ' ..... 000
00..... 000
tD (OUINStOIl.ESS TIME)
Average
Vi scosity From
Computer Model
32.94
27.15
25.29
21.39
16.69
15.48
13.09
10.27
9.52
8.05
6.35
5.88
'00"
JION-HWTONLUI
...........
FIG. 3 - DRAWDOWN CURVES AT VARIOUS RATES AND 5, 10 AND 100 PERCENT PV OF NON-NEWTONIAN
FLUID LOCATED AT THE WELLBORE.
a.
o
a::
o
w
a::
::::>
(J)
(J)
~ 100
a.
(J)
(J)
w
-'
z
o
(J)
z
w
::::E
o
o
"-
<l
0
r"--
-"-
10
.
10
I
I
{, - IDa". NON-NEWTONIAN
I
o - 10"". NON-NEWTONIAN
o - 5 'Y. NON - NEWTONIAN
'0
~ A _
1-
0
-' h-8 -tA
r--"'_
--8_
!---A_
r-o-
8
_
t-0_S ---r ft-A_
I
!---"-
-0_
9
_
I I
. , . .
,
10 10 10 2
10 ' 10
q2/Q (FLOW RATE
2
/CUMULATIVE INJECTION OF SLUG)
II
1>
<
rT1
;u
I 00
1>
C>
rT1
1>
"1J
"1J
1>
;u
rT1
, ;z
-<
<
(j)
(")
0
(j)
=i
I -<
FIG. 4 - PRESSURE DROP AND AVERAGE APPARENT VISCOSITY AT STEADY STATE AS A FUNCTION OF
RATE2 AND SLUG SIZE FOR A SLUG LOCATED AT THE WELLBORE.
84
SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM E!'iGINEERS JOURNAL
TABLE 2 - COMPARISON OF AVERAGE VISCOSITY
OBT A1NED FROM COMPUTER MODEL AND VISCOSITY
OBTAINED USING SLOPES FROM FIG. 5
q "= 1.0, 5-percent 51 ug
OJ stance Calculated Average
from Well bore to Viscosity Viscosity from
Slug (ft) (cp) Computer Model
0-0 25.9 25.29
3 25.0 25.31
10 25.3 25.50
20 22.2 26.01
50 14.5 27.73
100 6.9 30.50
boundary of the reservoir.
Fig. 5 shows tl.P D vs tD for as-percent PV of
slug at radial positions of r
w
' 3, 10, 20, 50 and
100 ft, and the curve for a Newtonian fluid with no
mobility changes. All curves with the inner radius
of the slug not equal to the wellbore radius follow
the Newtonian curve for a certain length of time.
They begin deviating from the Newtonian curve
when the slug bank is seen. When the non- Newtonian
fluid moves away from the well bore, the slope of
the curve is not necessarily indicative of the average
viscosity of the slug when steady state is attained.
Table 2 compares the average viscosity of the
non- Newtonian fluid at' steady state and the slope
of the transient curves. When the inner radius of the
sl ug is less than 20 ft from the well bore for a
reservoir of this size (re = 330 ft), the slope gives
FROM ISOCHRONAL TEST
./
L
r----"

H
------
o
I 100
FIG. 6 INJECTIVITY INDEX FROM ISOCHRONAL
TESTS AS A FUNCTION OF RATE.
a good approximation to the average viscosity of
the slug. If the radius of the reservoir were less
than 330 ft, the distance of the slug at which the
slope would be a good approximation to the average
viscosity would decrease. Conversely, the distance
at which the slope is a good approximation would
increase as the size of the reservoir increases. This
occurs because the dimensionless pressure curve
is still in the transition zone when the radius of
drainage is seen.
An isochronal test was performed on this reservoir
model with flowing times of 0.5 hours and shut-in
times of '1 hour. Three flow tests were peLormed at
flow rates of 1, 10 and 100 ccl sec wi th lOa-percent
q 1.0 eM3/ e
5" NO'H.WTONIAN
__ ,,-3fl
' 100 It
----

0 10 10.000 100.000 1,000,000 10,000,000
FIG.
'0 (DIMENSIONLESS TIME)
FOR 5 PERCENT PV
OF NON-NEWTONIAN FLUIDS LOCATED AT VARIOUS
5 - DRAWDOWN CURVES
DIST ANCES FROM THE WELLBORE.
MARCH, 1969 85
PV of non-Newtonian fluid. A plot of injectivity
index (II = ql /'I,Po. 5 hr) vs q (Fig. 6) shows that the
II increases quite drastically for a power-law fluid.
Correspondingly, for the same isochronal test, the
II for Newtonian flow would decrease slightly, if any.
A run was performed for 5-percent, la-percent and
lOa-percent PV of slug at a rate of I ccl sec using
the fluid described by Curve 2 of Fig. 2. Fig. 7
shows the drawdown curve obtained. This curve has
the same characteristic sha!,e of those of Fig. 3
and the same type informatidn can be obtained from
this curve.
FIELD CASES
A series of transient tests were performed at a
test site during various periods of the injection




---

,.
r-
history. Prior to the isochronal tests, the field was
shut in to allow pressure equalization. Fig. 8 shows
typical fall-off data for Well A. These fall-off curves
show three distinct regions. The early part of the
curve is indicative of the transmissibility near the
well bore. The steep center portion may represent
the slug and oil bank. The late flattening portion
represents a change in average viscosity beyond the
slug-oil bank. This probably represents a watered
out portion of the reservoir. Theoretical drawdown
curves predict the same type of behavior (Fig. 5);
however, the late flattening portion in the theoretical
curve is due to pressure maintenance at the outer
boundary.
The pressure- vs-Iog time plot for the isochronal
test on Well B is shown in Fig. 9. Table 3 summarizes

-------
NON-MWTOfiIIAH
_10=
,."

."
q 1.0 CII3/ltc.
I' 15.0, '/A 0( 1.0
,.. 15.0 (.41-0.42 .... 11.0
, ..
'000
10.000 100.000 ,,000,000 10,000.000
10 (DIMENSIONLESS TillE)
FIG. 7-DRAWDOWN CURVES USING FLUID 2 (SEE FIG. 2) FOR 5, 10 AND 100 PERCENT PV OF NON-NEWTONIAN
FLUID LOCATED AT THE WELLBORE.
86
110 0
1000
900
800
0>
"' 700
a.
w
a::
::J 600
en
en
w
500
400
300
200
100
o
-
.1
'\

7-23-64 q=720 BBLS/DAY
1'\ m = 291 psi/cycle
11-20-64 q =850

........
.....
- .. i!l;:,42 psi/cycle
'\
0_
0-0_




.
.
oOn. ......1..
'to .......
k34 psi/cycle

10 100
TIME (min)
1000 10,000
FIG. 8 - FALLOFF CURVES FOR WELL A.
100,000
SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL
TABLE 3 - ISOCHRONAL INJECTIVITY VALUES
Rate Slape Kh/fl (P/Kh) 1,000
A
B
C
D
100
200
400
800
1,000
100
200
400
800
1,000
100
200
400
800
1,000
100
200
400
800
1,000
66
55
61
85
70
205
110
70
52
55
78
75
54
35
32
60
98
161
214
185
246
591
1,066
1,530
2,323
79
296
929
2,502
2,956
208
434
1,204
3,717
5,081
270
331
403
608
878
4.065
1.692
0.938
0.653
0.430
12.658
3.378
1.076
0.399
0.338
4.807
2.304
0.830
0.269
0.196
3.703
3.021
2.481
1.614
1.138
the slopes of the injection curves and the calculated
transmi ssibilities for a numberof wells. Conventional
equations were used for this evaluation. If the
system had been Darcyan and Newtonian, then the
slopes should have been proportional to the injection
ratio. That proportionality was observed during the
water injection tests prior to slug injection, but is
definitely absent here. The calculated transmissi-
bilities are increasing with increasing injection
rates, rather than remaining constant as in a
Newtonian system. Fig. 10 shows a log-log plot of
(transmissibility)-1 vs (rate)2 for the isochronal
tests. The trend of the points is that of a
pseudoplastic, power-law fluid.
The isochronal, I-hour injectivity index (II) of
the injection wells was defined as the rate divided
by the pressure drop. The pressure drop was the
pressure following 1 hour of inject-ion minus the
pressure at the start of the injection at the subject
rate. Fig. 11 shows log-log plots of (11)-1 vs (rate)2
for inj ection tests for constant cumulative injection,
Q. These curves show that the II increases as the
rate increases and that the log-log plot of II vs (rate)2
is nearly a straight line. This relationship was
1000
WELL 8
950
~ ' O O O BID ....
: : ~ : ~ BOO BID
900
....
400 BID
850
_ 800
200 BID-
(/) ....
.' .
!::. 750 --
~ 700
100 BID
~ 650
(/) .' .
W 600
a::
"- 550
500
450
'00
350
.03 . 0' o .08 I 12 .1' I. .18 I
TIME (hours)
FIG. 9 - ISOCHRONAL INJECTION FOR WELL B.
MARCH, 1969
predicted by Eq. 15. For a Newtonian system, the
same plot would gi ve a straight horizontal line; that
is, the II would not change with changing rate.
Fig. 12 shows a log-log plot of (II)-1 vs (rate)2j
cumulative inj ection for Well B during various stages
of cumulative slug injection. A straight line drawn
through these points has a slope of -0.33 or m,
and the slope of log t1 vs log q curve from Eq. 6 is
-0.66.
Fig. 13 shows a plot of the II vs rate for two
isochronal tests. These curves show that the II
increases as the rate increases. Comparison of these
figures with the isochronal injection test obtained
with the mathematical model (Fig. 6) shows that
the same behavior is observed.
CONCLUSIONS
1. Drawdown curves for a power-law fluid do not
exhibit the straight-line relationship that exists for
10
8
6
4
-= 2
-0
E
" c. 1.0
0_ 0.8
: : I . . I ~ 0.6
0.4
0.2
0.1
10,000
FIG. 10
>-
0
"0
"
.0
.0
~
VI
c.
-;-
H
H
10
8
6
4
2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.1
10,000

8
& C
0 A
0 0
0

&
100,000 1,000,000
q2 (bbl/doy)2
INJECTION WELL TRANSMISSIBILITY- 1
AS A FUNCTION OF RATE.
2

8
& C
0 A
0 0
...
100,000 1,000,000
q2 (bbl/doy)2
FIG. 11 - INJECTION WELL II- 1 AS A FUNCTION
OF RATE.
2
87
'0',--------,-------,
'"
" ' ~ - - - - - - ~ ~ ~ L - - - - - - - + - - - - -
" Q
FIG. 12 - INJECTION WELL n- 1 AS A FUNCTION
OF RATE2/CUMULATIVE INJECTION OF NON-
NEWTONIAN FLUID.
Newtonian flow through a homogeneous medium.
However, the slope of 6.PD vs log tD gives a good
approximation for the average vi scosity in the
non-Newtonian slug at a particular flow rate.
2. The exponent of the rate in the viscosity-rate
relationship can be obtained by plotting log 6.PD at
steady state vs log q2.
3. The injectivity index increases with rate for a
power-law fluid; whereas, for a Newtonian it will
remain constant or decrease slightly.
88
A
C
NOMENCLATURE
cross- sectional area
a constant
c compressibility
F
h
k
II
L
m
Q
q
r
a constant in the power-law relationship
thickness
permeability
inj ecti vi ty index
length
exponent for a power-law fluid
cumulative volume of slug injected
vol umetric flow rate
radius
radius of drainage
wellbore radius
time
dimensionless time
incremental dimensionless distance
pressure drop
{:; 8
3.0
___ 0 c
A
-
o 0
~
---- -- 1--
f-
-- --
--t----
/
'/J
--
~
V ~ VI
V
V
~
~
/
(L
~
V
-
~
L --
V
/
- ---
r---r---
/. ~ /
//: ~
/
~
V
---- -- ---
~ -
~
--- -- -
25
<n
20
a.
"-
>-

0
"-
<f)
--'
15
!Xl
!Xl
H
H
10
.5
o
o 200 400 600 800 1000
RATE. BBLS/DAY
FIG. 13 INJECTION WELL II AS A FUNCTION OF
RATE.
!'I.PD
1>
/l
f1n
f1app
/lapp
dimensionless pressure drop
porosity
viscosity
viscosity of the Newtonian fluid
apparent vi sco si ty
average apparent viscosity
SUBSCRIPTS
n
index referring to space increment
index referring to time increment
REFERENCES
1. Gogarty, W. B.: "Rheological Properties of Pseudo-
plastic Fluids in Porous Media", Soc. Pet. Eng. J.
(June, 1967) 149-159.
2. Christopher, R H. and Middleman, S.: "Power Law
Flow Through a Packed Tube", / & EC Fundamentals
(Nov. 1965) Vol. 4, 422.
3. McKinley, R M., Jahns, H. 0., Harris, W. W. and
Greenkorn, R. A.: "Non-Newtonian Flow in Porous
Media", A/ChE Jour. (Jan., 1966) Vol. 12, 17.
4. Bailey, H. R: Technical Report No. 62-1R, Marathon
Oil Company.
5. Thurnau, D. H.: Bandsolve-Algorithm Section, Comm.
of ACM (Aug., 1963) Vol. 6, 441. ***
SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL